In the ever-changing world of digital marketing, video content continues to play a crucial role in gaining exposure and generating conversions. Today, it’s one of the most effective parts of any digital marketing strategy. As technology advances and social media networks evolve, advertisers have more ways to interact with audiences than ever before.
These days, people have a wealth of technology at their fingertips. They’re constantly exposed to interactive media and videos. Younger demographics have been viewing digital content since before they were even able to walk on two feet. This familiarity with technology has lead to a boom in the online video market. No matter what your business has to offer consumers, it would be wise to implement some video content into your digital marketing efforts.
The YouTube Takeover
While traditional media is still quite popular around the world, digital media is quickly catching up. 6 out of 10 people prefer to watch short videos online than to spend time in front of the television. Rather than sitting on the couch and viewing whatever happens to be on, YouTube lets people actively choose what they want to see. Plus, most videos are short-format. In our fast-paced world, spending a few minutes of downtime to watch a fun video is all that some people have.
YouTube is also a great place for research.
According to Google, 65 percent of people will use YouTube to search for answers to their questions rather than using a traditional search engine.
This is especially true when the solution to a problem requires a visual aid, such as building a piece of furniture or performing a dance move.
Currently, the video-sharing website has over 1.9 billion active users.
That’s about a third of the Internet users across the globe and a significant chunk of the overall human population. With this much engagement, why not take advantage of the services that YouTube has to offer? After all, it’s free and offers a chance to engage with your target audience on a more personal level.
According to YouTube, more than a billion hours of video is viewed on the platform each and every day.
Approximately 72 hours of video content is uploaded every minute of the day.
Because videos are typically short, roughly 5 billion views are counted daily.
YouTube is the second most popular website on the Internet. With its easy accessibility, it’s not hard to see why. While most people associate the site with humorous cat videos, it’s a powerful marketing tool as well. Users are able to subscribe to their favorite channel, which is great for advertisers. Currently, the most popular channels have well over 100 million subscribers.
Advertisers use this channel loyalty to their advantage by producing video advertisements that play before and during the video. You can easily pay to have your content exposed to a very specific audience. It’s an effective form of marketing that’s beneficial to all parties involved. To put the success of video marketing on YouTube into perspective, the highest-earning YouTube channel raked in over 22 million dollars in advertising revenue in a single year. The face of that channel is a 7-year-old boy!
Digital Viewership by the Numbers
While YouTube is, without a doubt, the most popular way to view videos online, it’s certainly not the only option. Videos are shared across many social media platforms and published to sites directly. Advertisers, marketing firms, and individual companies have plenty of ways to gain exposure by using videos.
As a whole, video content makes up a significant portion of all Internet traffic.
Cisco estimates that videos will account for 82 percent of all consumer web traffic by 2022.
In just a few short years, online viewership will be 15 times higher than it was in 2017. By next year, it’s estimated that a million minutes of video will pass through Internet channels every single second.
So where is all that viewership coming from? Well, Saudi Arabia currently has the highest viewership when it comes to video content. Roughly 98 percent of the population views videos regularly. In the United States, that figure is a bit lower at 85 percent. The most avid watchers are Millenials between the ages of 25 and 34. While videos are enjoyed by everyone, men tend to view more online video content than women.
Mobile Viewership
People aren’t confined to their computers or televisions anymore. These days, there are several ways to access video content through the web. Smartphones are the most common, as most people carry one throughout the day. Tablets, laptops, and even smartwatches have increased mobile viewership significantly over the last several years. According to Insivia, the number of people that watch videos on the go increases 100 percent every year.
Many platforms are dedicated to mobile viewership. For example, social media platforms like Tik Tok, Periscope, and Snapchat are all very popular. Periscope has done over 200 million live mobile broadcasts since its inception. Over 10 million videos are viewed every day on Snapchat alone.
Creating videos that are catered to mobile audiences could pay off in the long run. It’s estimated that almost three-quarters of all video plays are done on mobile devices. Facebook found that people are about 1.5 times more likely to view a quick video on their mobile device instead of watching it on a computer. So how can mobile viewership benefit you?
Well, roughly 92 percent of mobile viewers will share the videos they like with others. This can help to increase your exposure to a much wider audience through the use of organic interest alone.
The Power of Social Media
Social media and video marketing go hand in hand. Videos are an integral part of the social media experience. People love to share the fun content they find with their friends, family, and followers. Social media companies aren’t just sitting back and watching this happen. They’ve taken notice and have begun to shift their operations to make things a bit more video-friendly for users. Some of the biggest platforms are starting to prioritize videos over standard text and graphic posts.
One Facebook executive even estimates that the entire platform with be video-based by the year 2021. That’s definitely a tall order, but it’s not hard to see why someone would believe that videos are the way of the future. Social media posts with video content tend to get 48 percent more views than those with just text. These posts generate 1200 percent more shares than just text and images combined! That alone should be more than enough proof that video marketing is the way to go.
A lot has changed in the social media landscape in the last decade. Video viewership has been one of the biggest. The most popular social media platform, Facebook, has some impressive numbers. About 75 million people view the company’s dedicated video platform every day, which leads to 8 billion individual daily views. This growth in video engagement has led to a better marketing landscape for companies. Video promotions have now as popular as traditional photo promotions on Facebook.
During a social media marketing study, 62 percent of participants said that they were more interested in a particular product after seeing it on a Facebook story. Plus, it’s believed that people retain 95 percent of the information they see in a video. This is significantly higher than the 10 percent that most people remember from text. So, not only are you making your product or service more appealing through the use of video content, but you’re making your company more memorable.
In the past, people avoided marketing content. However, the implementation of clever video marketing in social media has changed the way people see branded content. Overall, the views on branded content have increased by 258 percent on Facebook alone.
The Success of Video Marketing
Now that you understand how people view online videos, let’s dig a bit deeper into how video marketing can improve your bottom line. A lot of research has been done over the years to measure the effectiveness of video marketing. Creating a solid campaign involves much more than just posting a simple video to a single social media account. To expand your reach and engage with your target audience, you must incorporate video content through all of your communication channels.
One area that can benefit from video content is your website. A great video on your landing page can improve your conversion rate by as much as 80 percent. Not only that, but landing pages with videos are 53 times more likely to show up on the first page of search engine results for your target keywords.
Truth is, videos make your site more engaging to viewers. People spend 2.6 times more time on a website if it has a video on it. Web users are actively searching for information. Chances are, they’ll gravitate towards video content to get the answers they’re looking for. Almost 50 percent of users will view videos about a product they’re interested in before making a purchase. Nearly 97 percent of people say that videos help them understand the produce or service much better than a standard article.
If you’re worried about publishing too much content, you might be surprised at what consumers think about video marketing. According to HubSpot 85 percent of consumers want to see more video content from the brands that they love. Yet, only 25 percent of companies publish new videos weekly. As long as you’re producing high-quality content that’s designed for your target demographic, you’re bound to see success.
Videos can increase organic search traffic to your website by as much as 157 percent. As a result, you’re able to generate more leads. This can ultimately improve your bottom line and help you stretch your marketing budget as far as it will go. It’s no surprise that 52 percent of marketers say that video content offers the best return on investment across the board.
Launching Your Video Marketing Campaign
Video marketing is not a new concept by any means. It’s been around for several years. Over time, marketers have been able to identify what works and what doesn’t. While the success of a campaign will depend largely on the type of content that you produce, there are a few best practices that you can stick to. Of course, digital marketing is constantly evolving. As technology gets more powerful and people have access to faster Internet speeds, what marketers consider to be effective is sure to change.
Currently, short videos get more engagement than long ones. As we mentioned earlier, mobile viewership is incredibly popular. People just don’t have time to sit in front of their device for long periods of time. Many are also unwilling to do so if they know that the content is branded. So, short videos under two minutes long are the way to go.
Even still, you have to craft your content to appeal to fleeting interest. About 33 percent of viewers will stop watching a video after 30 seconds. By a minute 45 percent of the audience will be gone. By the end of the video, 60 percent of viewers will have already clicked off. If the advertisement is played before a different kind of content, about 65 percent of all viewers will skip the ad the moment they’re given the opportunity to do so. To get people to stick around, your videos need to be quick, to the point, and exciting enough to grab their attention.
Another thing to consider is the audio that accompanies your videos. About 85 percent of videos on Facebook are watched without sound. However, over on Instagram, 60 percent of videos are watched with the sound turned on. When you’re planning your video marketing campaign, cater the audio to the platform for the best results. Also, think about the effectiveness of auto-playing videos. Approximately 82 percent of Internet users dislike auto-playing ads. So, big-name browsers like Google Chrome automatically block these types of ads.
Conclusion
As you can see from all these statistics, video marketing is an incredibly effective way to reach your target demographic. Roughly 93 percent of all marketers use video content of some kind. It doesn’t matter what you’re selling. Well-produced videos that are designed with your audience in mind can make all the difference.
Video marketing is not just a way of the future. It’s something that you can start investing in today. While it does take more resources to get started, the return of investment you’ll experience is well worth the added costs. In the end, you can reap the benefits through increased exposure, enhanced brand awareness, and more conversions.
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